Ruisdael (or Ruysdael), Jacob Isaakszoon van (c. 1628–1682)

Dutch artist. He is widely considered the greatest of the Dutch landscape painters. He painted scenes near his native town of Haarlem and in Germany, his works often concentrating on the dramatic aspects of nature. A notable example of his atmospheric style is The Jewish Cemetery (c. 1660; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden).

Alhough he sometimes painted German and Scandinavian scenes, he is primarily an interpreter of typical Dutch landscape: of dunes, coastal gleams, low horizons over which great clouds sweep, and quiet patches of woodland with gnarled and weatherbeaten trees, his dark greens and greys infusing a personal and romantic melancholy. Landscape with a Castle and Church about 1668 (National Gallery, London) is typical.

Meindert Hobbema was his most important pupil, though posthumously he was the master of both English and French landscape painters, greatly influencing Gainsborough, Constable, and the Barbizon School.

Ruisdael was born in Haarlem and was possibly a pupil of his uncle, Salomon van Ruisdael, and of Cornelisz Vroom. He painted many views in the region of Haarlem, and of Amsterdam, where he lived 1659–81, afterwards returning to his native city. His only known journey abroad is to Caen in France, where he took a degree in medicine 1676. However, his work gives some evidence of journeys along the Rhine and on the German border, and either he went to Norway and Sweden, or else in one phase he borrowed crags, waterfalls, and pine forests from the Dutch painter Allart van Everdingen (1621–1675).